Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an estimate of the number and proportion of parents using the Child Maintenance Service who are in debt as of 12 November 2023.

We have answered based on our assumption that the question asked is in connection with the number of people with child maintenance debt and not broader family financial challenges and debt (credit cards etc)

In line with our published Child Maintenance Service (CMS) statistics the latest information only covers up to September 2023. The total amount of CMS parents with CMS debt is 233.3k. Please note that the debt considered in this calculation will include instances where the liability has been charged to a Paying Parent's account, but the scheduled collection date relating to that liability has not yet been reached. For a small number of Paying Parents, this will be the only 'debt' that they owe.